 No surprise here: Everyone on my list is receiving books (again) this holiday. Thrillers, history, science fiction--every year it's wonderful to try and match people to books. I had a great time shopping at Book Passage (my local independent bookstore), perusing staff picks, holding the books, alighting on covers, reading the flap copy and the first sentences. Books are the best gifts in so many ways. For one thing, many of us already have too much stuff to warrant all the spending that happens at this time of year. To me, though, books don't count as stuff. The best of them give us new insight into what it means to be human, are even transformative. And you don't need to keep the book--I love to think of each one passed on to a friend or given to a school, or shared in a Little Free Library. If I could, I'd wrap up peace, love, and contentment. I'd give the bully and the bullied the gift of acceptance. And even though these things can't be delivered under a tree or tucked by the menorah, a book sometimes can inspire a better world. And money helps too.
For everyone who aspires to write a book, it's true -- there is nothing more thrilling than opening that first box of hardcover books and seeing your name on the cover. Yet lately I've been struck by something more. I'm even more amazed by all the helping hands. Promoting MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER is like balancing on a log, trying to stay on top -- and every hand extended fills me with gratitude. The hands that are keeping my feet from slipping into oblivion belong to: 
 Writing is solitary work. It's just me and my computer (although I often talk to myself as a I puzzle out plot). Selling is social -- and I thank everyone for pitching in and helping me get across the stream!
On the heels of my last post, I'm awed by my good fortune to win the attention of the Association of Booksellers for Children. MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER was selected as one of twelve novels to earn a spring New Voices award!
And I love the company I'm in! Check out Hannah Barnaby, Augusta Scattergood and Caroline Starr Rose (I loved May B.). There's more: Marilyn Sue Shank, Carole Geithner, Cynthia Levinson, Jennifer Shaw Wolf, Marissa Meyer, Jesse Andrews, Leigh Bardugo, and Trish Doller. So thank you so much to the booksellers who spent hours reading all the new releases! Order your books from these folks:
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